How to operate the Pinduoduo mini program for growth!

Since its very beginning in e-commerce user growth and operations, Pinduoduo has been a role model in the industry.

It started with the group-buying model, attracted by the WeChat ecosystem, and developed rapidly in 3 years before being listed in the United States. Its market value has now exceeded 80 billion US dollars, kicking Baidu and punching JD.com.

The products and operations maintain amazing vitality and creativity: bargaining helps people get cash and spread it around their friends circle; orchard cultivation games have become the industry standard; and the 10 billion yuan subsidy has allowed Taobao, JD.com and Suning to learn from and copy it.

No idea for an activity? Using Pinduoduo has gradually become a routine operation for Internet products and operators.

However, Pinduoduo still has not gotten rid of the label of "outside the Fifth Ring Road". In the first quarter financial report of 2020, Pinduoduo's users have reached 630 million, and the sinking market remains stable; "inside the Fifth Ring Road" has also gradually broken through. In order to further grow, increase GMV and average order value, and fight against the two giants of Alibaba and JD.com, "users within the Fifth Ring Road" have also become Pinduoduo's further imagination space and direction of effort.

I dare not talk about macro operations rashly, so this article will start with Pinduoduo’s five WeChat mini-programs, break down and learn about Pinduoduo’s growth operations, and also see Pinduoduo’s ambitions and capabilities beyond the Fifth Ring Road.

The disassembly process is quite detailed, and there are also thoughts and summaries. Welcome to criticize~

1. Pinduoduo Enterprise In-house Purchase

Strictly speaking, Pinduoduo's in-app purchasing function is not an independent WeChat mini program. It is only an exclusive function opened by Pinduoduo to corporate users.

Currently, there is no open application entrance in the Pinduoduo app or mini program. Certified corporate users need to share and invite new users, and new users need to be authenticated through corporate email to obtain in-app purchase rights. Currently supports enterprise user authentication for 300+ companies.

Successfully certified enterprise users can enjoy enterprise in-app purchase prices and unlock perks.

After successful authentication, you can view the activities on the 10 billion subsidies page of the Pinduoduo APP and mini program, including information such as authentication identity, subsidy rights, in-app purchase price, and 1 yuan group purchase.

The 10 billion yuan subsidy is itself quite favorable, and combined with the company's in-house purchase price and exclusive allowances, the multiple price advantages are very attractive to users. In addition, identity authentication creates a sense of scarcity of rights and interests, and has certain sunk costs, which can better retain users and reduce churn.

The shopping allowance enjoyed by enterprise certified users is the discount coupons. The first coupon of 6 yuan off for purchases over 50 yuan is issued directly every week and is valid for that week. The remaining coupons of multiple levels need to be redeemed with popularity points.

The popularity value can be understood as a kind of points. To obtain points, you need to participate in daily check-ins and invite user tasks, thus forming fission propagation. Moreover, the popularity value will be cleared at 23:59 on the last day of each week and will need to be accumulated again the next week. This will help ensure a stable invitation cycle for users to form behavioral habits and can also reduce "wool-pulling" behavior to a certain extent.

In addition to gaining popularity by sharing and attracting new users, the 1 yuan group is also a way to attract new users.

The popularity value invitation task focuses on inviting colleagues/friends, that is, the corporate user group; and the 1 yuan group package is called welfare shopping for friends and relatives. Certified users first initiate a group purchase for free, and then invite 3 users to shop; but after initiating the group purchase, Pinduoduo will have a free support quota, so you only need to invite 2 more relatives to shop. Invited relatives can enjoy the friends and family price, and corporate users who initiate a 1 yuan group can obtain the product for 1 yuan.

Enterprise users, their colleagues/friends, and their relatives are closely connected. They are all relatively high-value users “within the Fifth Ring Road”, and this growth idea and strategy is truly excellent.

There are only so many contents and ways to play in-app purchases, and currently it is still a project in which Pinduoduo has invested the most in operations.

In addition to a wide range of products, discounts and gameplay support, it is also equipped with WeChat customer service to provide notifications of event information and answer daily questions, increasing the ways to reach users.

And the customer service uses corporate WeChat. As third-party WeChat user/community operation tools such as WeTool are currently banned, the operation and management functions of WeChat for Business will be gradually explored, utilized, enriched and optimized. WeChat for Business will further erode the enterprise office communication tool market that DingTalk has worked hard to build up.

2. Pinduoduo In-App Purchase

Just after talking about Pinduoduo's corporate internal purchasing, another term "Pinduoduo internal purchasing" appeared. The difference between the two is quite obvious. The Pinduoduo in-app purchase mini program is for in-app purchase items shared by Pinduoduo employees, but it is most likely just in packaging and not from real Pinduoduo employees.

In the Pinduoduo in-app purchase app, you need to sign in and invite friends to get in-app purchase coupons. You can enjoy discounts by using a certain number of in-app purchase coupons when shopping. The process is relatively simple, similar to using popularity points to redeem allowances for Pinduoduo’s in-app purchases.

The fun of Pinduoduo's in-app purchasing mini program lies in its efforts to package real Pinduoduo employees, with real avatars, real names, real departments, real work numbers, real sharing paths, and real consulting employees.

Although the word "real" needs to be put in quotation marks, it still gives users a relatively realistic experience. In-app purchases do enjoy additional discounts, which increases user trust and makes people less concerned when placing orders.

3. Pinduoduo Brand Black Card

Pinduoduo Brand Black Card Mini Program is based on branded products and uses the black card concept to offer discounts and achieve fission.

When you enter the mini program for the first time, you will be guided to sign in to receive the Black Card Gold. Just click sign in to receive it. The card is only valid for 2 hours and can only be received once a day, emphasizing the limited time to highlight its value.

In addition, you can invite friends to sign in and receive black card gold, and you can get up to 20 yuan for fission propagation.

Black card gold can be used as cash when placing an order, but the amount of black card gold that can be used for each product is different. Generally, low-priced products can only use a smaller amount of black card gold.

The recommended products are currently all well-known brands, and the target users are also relatively clear.

The black card originated from the concept of banking and finance. It was originally an unlimited credit card exclusively for distinguished customers. It is now being used more in some operational activities. The various black cards and knight cards that were once popular on Douyin and Alipay all use this concept to shape the high value of the product, enhance trust endorsement, and make users willing to pay.

4. Duoduobiyou Plus

The Duoduobiyuplus mini program is a little different. The positioning seems to be a grass-planting community, but it is too straightforward and crude. The content introduction is still a direct product description, and the homepage says "2,683,260 people with style want to buy it."

It can be seen that the target users are not low-end users. Currently, the number of people who want to buy each product is in the hundreds or even dozens, and the overall number of users is still relatively small.

In addition, the Duoduobiyu mini program is also very unlike Pinduoduo's style in terms of fission. It only supports adding products to lists and direct purchases. The only function involving sharing and dissemination is product selection.

Users can share the items in the list with friends for voting, allowing other users to choose the items they like more. Stay tuned, there will probably be new adjustments later.

5. Lynn Fans Benefits

Lynn Fans Benefits is also a mini program that focuses on discounts, with the main features of "employee screening, price monitoring, lowest price within 15 days, and 100% authentic products", and users like to "take advantage of the discounts".

This mini program directly talks about selected wool products and wool coupons. Inviting users can obtain different levels of coupons, which can be used based on the wool price, with multiple discounts.

Lynn has a variety of operating methods. In addition to inviting friends to obtain coupons, it also actively guides users to add WeChat and join communities. It also has community-exclusive lottery activities, which is also fission communication.

The small function of price curve also allows users to see the price change curve of goods, highlighting the current low price, which can be said to be full of tricks.

VI. Conclusion

The above are the 5 Pinduoduo mini programs that have been disassembled. Although some of them currently have less investment in products and operations, and the results may not be amazing, there are still many areas worth thinking about and learning from.

1. Vertical product design and refined user operations

The five Pinduoduo mini programs that were disassembled are designed and operated for different user groups: corporate white-collar users, high-value brand users, and content-preferring users. These are exactly the user groups that Pinduoduo, the leader in the sinking market, lacks.

Through targeted product design, commodity selection, and event operation, we can attract new customers and convert them relatively independently; and ultimately direct traffic to Pinduoduo, gradually enriching the user level and enhancing user value. This also explains the title: the area within the Fifth Ring Road is not a forbidden area for Pinduoduo.

2. Create specific concepts to enhance user trust

Pinduoduo's products and operations have always been excellent in analyzing and applying user psychology.

Corporate identity authentication, employee screening for in-app purchases, recommended product selection officers, and people with style. By creating personal characters, we can enhance the authenticity of the event, increase users’ trust in the event and products, and lower the decision-making threshold.

Black card gold, wool coupons, and in-app purchase coupons are also very creative, hitting the user's psychology and creating a certain sense of scarcity. Moreover, Pinduoduo’s most common operation is to provide partial upfront rewards and additional official support when users are required to make sharing invitations, using the goal approach psychology and sunk costs to encourage users to keep sharing and not give up easily.

3. Strive to keep product process simple and optimize detail design

The invitation and fission process in the mini program is simple and clear, different from the complex retention activities in the Pinduoduo APP. Because mini program users have lower stickiness, attracting new users and fission also pays great attention to conversion loss in each link. A more simplified process can achieve the goal of “don’t let users think but let them act directly”.

In addition, the design of product details such as price curves and consulting staff can amplify the effect of the activity.

In the Internet era of open information and rapid exchange, achieving user growth through unprecedented creativity is a rare opportunity. The gap between different competing products is more reflected in the design of processes and the optimization of details.

The multiplier effect can amplify the positive effects of every detail, but conversely, bad details can ruin a product or activity.

4. Fission, new users, self-propagation, multiple user operation touchpoints

Fission sharing in Pinduoduo products is always everywhere. This feature is also reflected in mini programs, which reasonably distribute multiple sharing points in the user behavior path to form user self-propagation, and thus growth is achieved.

A fission and new customer acquisition activity with an investment of 10 points is not as good as five sharing tasks with an investment of 2 points. Sharing that comes naturally is often more efficient.

In addition, many of Pinduoduo's mini-programs will actively guide users to add customer service numbers and join communities. At the very least, a direct customer service entrance will be provided within the mini-program to ensure that users can be reached in a timely manner.

If they are not active in the mini program, they can be reached in the community; if the community messages are blocked, they can send greetings through personal accounts; multi-touchpoint operations can reduce user churn and maximize user value.

Okay, the above is the analysis and thinking about Pinduoduo’s 5 mini programs. These mini-programs are only part of Pinduoduo’s mini-program matrix. You are welcome to share more gameplay and ideas.

Author: Wu Yijiu

Source: Wu Yijiu